Man found dead named
Sports clubs are concerned about how they will contact trace spectators and monitor crowd numbers when sport eventually resumes under level 2.
Community sport is in a ‘‘prepare to play’’ phase where teams can train in small groups of up to 10 players. Sports like rugby, and rugby league have more than 10 players on a team and will need to wait until Monday’s update on gathering numbers before contemplating training.
Monday will be a key date for amateur sport, with codes desperate to hear the rules around training and gathering numbers, which could pave the way for community sport’s return in June.
Clubs are anxious for more information around how they will deal with spectator numbers at large suburban grounds, where there is access from multiple roads and several entrance ways. Creating a single entrance-exit point would be impossible at many sports venues, sparking calls for relaxed gathering regulations.
Other issues include contact tracing spectators, ensuring gathering numbers are being maintained at each field or court, and people are carrying out social distancing on the sidelines.
Christchurch’s Burnside Park is a vast ground, where it would be formidable to keep a record of every spectator arriving, unless there was a single entrance-exit point.
Burnside Rugby Club board chairman Mark Roughan said putting temporary fencing around Burnside Park would be a huge cost they could not afford.
‘‘Spectators is an entirely different cup of tea and what the Government is going to require of us at that level will probably dictate how we can do anything . . .
‘‘The only way you can do that is to fence it off with temporary fencing and none of us can afford that. We’d be better off saying Burnside Park can’t be used.’’
Roughan was eager to know whether Monday’s gathering numbers would apply to each field or venue after some initial confusion from Sport New Zealand when they announced the 10-person training limit.
Contact tracing was critical for community sport with most sports using apps, where people will check themselves in and out of the venue. Roughan questioned how it would work with most children not owning cellphones and some people certain to forget there’s. People could slip through the cracks with a written record.
Using a single entrance-exit point meant large queues could form, unless limited games were held at each park.
‘‘Do you stop and say no spectators in here? The only people coming in are the players? These are all those questions that we just can’t answer,’’ Roughan said.
Wellington’s Marist St Pats Rugby Club also expressed doubts over how crowds could be controlled and spectator contact tracing kept in line.
‘‘It’s problematic because we’re going to have to secure entrances and exits, which is going to require volunteers,’’ club chairman Rob Evans said.
‘‘In a good old Wellington southerly we’re going to have either a form to fill out or contact tracing via an app, which a lot of supporters won’t have because of their age demographic.’’
Auckland’s Suburbs Rugby Club said it would be futile trying to secure their Sister Rene Shadbolt Park, where people could easily enter from anywhere.
‘‘If you had the one entry and exit point you could control that, but most club grounds don’t have that, it’s on council grounds, so I don’t think it would be an option being able to control it,’’ club chairman Thomas Curtis said.
Christchurch’s Hagley Park netball courts normally attracted more than 5000 people on Saturdays.
Christchurch Netball Centre (CNC) board chairwoman Chris Rodda said Monday’s announcement would be crucial for their planning. She anticipated only players and officials might be able to enter the venue.
‘‘Until we get a better idea of that, we won’t be having spectators in. It will just be teams and officials in and teams and officials out, then the next lot coming in basically.’’
CNC had looked at temporary fencing around two-thirds of the courts to guarantee there was a single entrance-exit point.
Seating had already been removed at the courts and players might be asked to leave bags at home.
On a typical Saturday, 28 to 29 courts were used for games, but this would be reduced and staggered start times were likely to be introduced.
Sport Canterbury chief executive Julyan Falloon said plenty needed to be worked through with the logistics of amateur sport returning.
‘‘It’s all very well to come out with a gathering number and hygiene practices, but when you start unpacking the health and safety aspect of tracing, numbers only mean how many can you have, that’s fine, but where are these people coming and going from [at the venues].’’
Cashmere Technical football president Bill Cowen agreed the spectator issue was fraught with difficulty.
‘‘It’s much easier for professional sport where they’ve got stadia and known entry points. Public fields, I don’t quite know how anybody could guarantee a complete process . . . I think it would be fair to say everyone is concerned.’’
Cowen hoped New Zealand’s encouraging Covid-19 situation and lack of new cases would allow for the rules to be relaxed with gatherings, which would be a boost for community sport’s resumption.
Marist St Pats were celebrating their 50th anniversary this year and Evans was optimistic club sport could return swiftly, provided health and safety guidelines were followed. Every week without bar takings was a hit for the club and others around the country.
‘‘We want to have something meaningful and meaningful means engaging as many in the community as we can.’’
Belfast Rugby Club president Bruce McFadden said volunteers would be lumped with policing spectator numbers on the sidelines and at ground entry points. Having to deal with confrontational people would fall to them.
McFadden wondered what would happen with rugby club days, where all the teams play at their home venue on the same day once a season.
‘‘At our club day there are thousands there. There’s no way you’d be able to do that at all.’’
Patron numbers inside the clubrooms would be another problem. If the 100-person limit remained, a volunteer would need to keep track of who had come and gone inside, which would be tricky, Burnside’s Roughan said.
‘‘If it’s a life member at the door, and he’s number 101, and we’ve got to say ‘you’ve got to wait outside until someone leaves’, I can’t imagine him being too happy about it, but the rules are the rules.’’
‘‘These are all those questions that we just can’t answer.’’
Police have identified a man found dead in a car in an Otago river as a 59-year-old Queenstown resident. John Robert Howard’s body was discovered in a partially submerged vehicle on Tuesday night, after crashing down a steep bank and into the Kawarau River on State Highway 6 the previous evening. Howard was the owner of a decorating business and his passing would leave a hole in many peoples’ lives, friend Tamara Ashby said. Police named Howard as the victim, but said they were still investigating what had happened. The police national dive squad recovered his body on Wednesday.